uest. However, if in a military
point of view Greece cannot to-day be the chief actor, she yet remains
the most important factor of civilization in the East in intellectual,
political, and ethnological respects. It is the indomitable genius of
this nation which in the darkest moments of its historical life has been
able to throw some brilliant flashes over the history of the human race.
It is Greek industry which to-day plays _par excellence_ the most active
part in the propagation of culture in the East. Intermediate between the
West and the East, the Greeks assimilate with an astonishing rapidity
the results of progress; and the ancient East, that unfortunate mummy of
history, begins to be born again, to revive, to breathe, to speak, like
the legendary statue of Memnon, under the breath and at the approach of
the new spirit casting its vivifying rays on the motionless and silent
body of the _alma mater_ of human civilization.

Here is a country which formerly existed and which lived only in its
past, and which to-day presents itself with promises, aspirations,
claims on the future. It was only an historic tradition, a sad souvenir,
a geographical expression, a land of the dead, where everything was
lacking except the sun, which still shone as a lamp which cast a
mournful light on the tomb of a departed glory. This land has to-day
become quite young again. There are towns now, where formerly the
shepherd led his flock silently among the ruins of a past which he did
not know. Athens, formerly an insignificant village, is to-day the
finest town in the East, and may be compared with the first cities of
the West. She numbers, according to the recent census, more than 70,000
inhabitants; the Piraeus, which contains more than 20,000 of this number,
has latterly become the centre of the industrial activity of the new
State. All the large towns of Greece are now centres of commerce, of
manufactures, of culture. The population which existed at the time of
the creation of the new kingdom has been doubled, in consequence of the
material development of the country, whose prosperity is every day
attracting foreign capital. The credit of Greece is assured in the
money-markets of Europe in consequence of the much desired agreement
which has been come to between the Government and the creditors of the
unfortunate loan of 1824. Already the _Times_ is raising its voice in
favour of the Greek exterior loan recently contracted at Paris. Gr